Mel Gibson to Direct Leonardo DiCaprio

Mel Gibson and Leonardo DiCaprio working on a film together seems like an odd combination, but it’s happening. According to BFDealmemo, the Oscar winning director will team up with DiCaprio for an upcoming Viking movie. This means William Wallace will be directing Howard Hughes while wearing a horn hat, or at least that’s my visual of it.

The Viking film is untitled at the moment, but will feature a screenplay written by William Monahan who penned The Departed. According to sources, the film will fall in line with Gibson’s previous period pieces Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. The plot details of the film haven’t been revealed but we do know that it will be heavily submerged in Viking culture.

One of the main producers on the film is Graham King, who worked with Gibson, DiCaprio, and Monahan on past projects. He’s said to be the glue that’s keeping this project together. The film is slated to start production sometime in the fall of 2010. This will mark DiCaprio’s first film with Gibson, so it will be interesting to see if they can make movie magic.

DiCaprio has the look to pull off a Viking thanks to his blonde hair, blue eyes, and German heritage but Gibson on the other hand concerns me. How many of these period war epics can he direct? Don’t get me wrong, all the ones he’s done have been pretty good, but I want to see something else from him.